Q2 2015 Results: WoW Down to 5.6 Million Subscribers

Activision Blizzard released their second quarter 2015 results today, and World of Warcraft is at 5.6 million subscribers, down 1.5 million from the Q1 2015 earnings report. While these numbers are quite low by recent standards, numbers should be bouncing back up with the expansion announcement at gamescom.

In the First Quarter for 2015, WoW was at 7.1 million subscribers, down 2.9 million from 10 million reported at Warlords' launch. Earlier in 2014, WoW was down to 6.8M for Q2 (the lengthy break between new content with Siege of Orgrimmar) and increased to 7.4M for Q3 as players got ready for Warlords of Draenor.

Blizzard Entertainment had the largest online player community in its history, with Q2 MAUsF up 50% year-over-year. Though World of Warcraft® ended the quarter at 5.6 million subscribers, Blizzard revenues are up year-over-year based on strong performance across the expanding Blizzard portfolio. On June 23, 2015, Blizzard Entertainment released, Fury of Hellfire, one of the largest non-expansion content updates to date for World of Warcraft. This new content helped stabilize the subscriber number towards the end of the quarter. World of Warcraft remains the No. 1 subscription‐based MMORPG in the world.

In the Q2 slide presentation, Fury of Hellfire was credited was stabilizing the subscriber base in the last few weeks of the quarter. Patch 6.2.1 was also mentioned as a draw for players due to the addition of Flying, as well as PvP mercenary mode.

Merrill Lynch asked about subscriber details--metrics, player hours--as well as the outlook on the upcoming expansion. Blizzard stated that they cannot delve into that level of detail on player habits, but they are pleased with how Warlords brought back more players than any previous expansion and they hope to repeat that moving forward. They also view the Warcraft movie as an important marketing tool in 2016, to increase interest overall and expose key lore to new players. They hope to increase the pace of new expansions and release high-quality content, and to this end, they are continuing to grow the development team.

Blizzard Entertainment had a strong Quarter 2 with their other games and spent a lot of time talking about them, including their e-sports developments:

On April 2, 2015, Blizzard Entertainment launched Blackrock Mountain™, the second Adventure for Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. The release of Hearthstone on iOS and Android smartphones followed on April 14, 2015. Key engagement metrics, which were already very strong, nearly doubled year over year, largely on account of the new content and new platforms.

Blizzard Entertainment launched Heroes of the Storm on June 2, 2015 with strong critical reception. The Eternal Conflict, a series of content additions based on the Diablo® universe, was launched in June and is still ongoing, and players have responded with positivity and excitement. Blizzard announced in May that Heroes of the Storm had been added to the Road to BlizzCon® program, and major tournaments are already underway globally.

On April 23, 2015, Sanctuary’s gates were thrown open to all Chinese heroes, as Blizzard Entertainmentʹs award‐winning action role‐playing game Diablo® III: Reaper of Souls™ went live in China. Diablo III has now sold-through over 30 million units life-to-date globally.

Blizzard Entertainment achieved record revenues and MAUs in China this quarter, driven by the popularity of Diablo III, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, and Heroes of the Storm.

Comments

Comment by nik666

Fury of Hellfire, one of the largest non-expansion content updates to date for World of Warcraft.

Is that serious?

Comment by Nulgar

on 2015-08-04T15:13:43-05:00

Brace yourselves, the doomsayers are coming...

Comment by mathiaslindberg

on 2015-08-04T15:14:34-05:00

Like salt to a wound, the Mystic Runesaber is now 40 euros in the EU.

Comment by poisonousfrog

on 2015-08-04T15:16:23-05:00

One could extrapolate the subscriber loss lead to the incoming expansion announcement well ahead of BlizzCon, which is the norm. I hope Blizzard has substantial information ready for this next expansion and it's not a rushed knee-jerk PR reaction to these numbers.

Comment by mathiaslindberg

on 2015-08-04T15:19:05-05:00

BummerAlso, Fury of Hellfire, one of the largest non-expansion content updates to date for World of Warcraft.

Is that serious?

If you think about the fact that it's just a zone and a 13 "boss" raid, it's only half of The Thunder King patch.

Comment by oranj

on 2015-08-04T15:30:47-05:00

they are bleeding us dry for profit. I think WoW won't exist 24 months from now, and will be on life support in 12. Activision are a cancer in the gaming industry.

Comment by florhl

on 2015-08-04T15:33:32-05:00

Do those that have a game time token running count as active? Wasn't sure if they ever clarified that or not.

I for one have gotten bored of the game & haven't even fully explored Tanaan. For me at least, it can be a real pain to run around on ground mounts trying to find the path to where you want to go.

Comment by Karadros

on 2015-08-04T15:37:20-05:00

Like salt to a wound, the Mystic Runesaber is now 40 euros in the EU.

Still £17 here. Where did you see this?

Comment by daenks

on 2015-08-04T15:38:38-05:00

Brace yourselves, the doomsayers are coming...

THE END IS COMING

Comment by janejunx

on 2015-08-04T15:39:13-05:00

BummerAlso, Fury of Hellfire, one of the largest non-expansion content updates to date for World of Warcraft.

Is that serious?

Clearly they meant in gigabytes, because there's literally NO OTHER WAY in which it is true.

Comment by Bluntpower

on 2015-08-04T15:39:49-05:00

probly half of the subscribed are token buyers also...

if it wasn't for this crap token the number would have been waaaaaaaaaay lower.

that was their way of fixing the game...

Fury of Hellfire, one of the largest non-expansion content updates to date for World of Warcraft.

LOOOOOOOOL

biggest nonsense ever, you came up with 2 new games that were developed with wow ressources, that's what everyone should remember.

Comment by Taramina

on 2015-08-04T15:42:01-05:00

I am not surprised that numbers are down. After all, in spite of all the expansions the game is still over 10 years old. Lower numbers are to be expected. I think there's a lot Blizzard could do to up the numbers and keep long term players from defecting, but they seem to have stagnated. Unless that changes, numbers will likely dwindle further.

"While these numbers are quite low by recent standards, numbers should be bouncing back up with the expansion announcement at gamescom."

Is the game dead? No, not by a long shot. But neither I agree with your assessment. There might be a small bounce, but I doubt it lasts. There may be another bounce as the expansion nears and releases, but unless there is a lot of rethinking about this game, I think losses will continue.

Comment by GordonBuchat

on 2015-08-04T15:44:18-05:00

While I'm sure sub numbers will be bouncing up with the upcoming expansion announcement, it is far more concerning that they didn't bounce up from the Q1 results to Q2 with the release of "one of the largest non-expansion content updates to date" that occurred just one week prior to the end of Q2. But instead of bouncing up, they fell another million and a half.

Another way to look at it, during the long lull of no new content post-SOO, subs were at 6.8 million, yet mid-expansion during WoD and just after a major content patch with a full 13 boss raid and a new zone, among other features, subs at Q2 were over a million less at 5.6 million. And without the Token, which many players have been using to stay subbed when they otherwise would not be (myself included), those numbers would be even lower.

But the most troubling thing continues to be the glossing over of these sub losses by focusing on total subs across all Blizz titles along with focusing just on the overall bottom line, both of which continue to increase with outlooks for continued improvement. Maybe that is just PR spin to hide the issues with WoW or simply the fact that investors don't care about WoW itself when the overall Blizz picture for all their games is good, but the lack of any acknowledgement of significant challenges in their premier franchise seems to me to be the biggest problem going forward.

The first step to improvement is first admitting that you have a problem. And I have yet to see that happen. The closest that they've come to that are a few acknowledgements in some dev interviews of some "mistakes." Maybe we'll see a more candid assessment at Gamescon or Blizzcon, but based on their track record, I'm not optimistic that will happen. And that is sad and does not bode well for the future of this beloved franchise.

Comment by Zuji

on 2015-08-04T15:45:06-05:00

"While these numbers are quite low by recent standards, numbers should be bouncing back up with the expansion announcement at gamescom."

I really have had it with your mindless fangirl-ism. You *do* realize that subscriber numbers havent been that low since Vanilla, yes? Your "recent standards" date from 2006.

Comment by Muchplox

on 2015-08-04T15:45:48-05:00

It was expectable.

Comment by Sixpac

on 2015-08-04T15:50:41-05:00

That's my guestimate as well: D3X2 was due for gamescom, but they had to pull the rip cord in light of the dramatic sub losses during the last 2 quarters and announce WOWX6 first (which originally was due for BlizzCon).

Comment by kardinal

on 2015-08-04T15:51:22-05:00

BummerAlso, Fury of Hellfire, one of the largest non-expansion content updates to date for World of Warcraft.

Is that serious?

Clearly they meant in gigabytes, because there's literally NO OTHER WAY in which it is true.

"One of" is a wonderful weasel word. Means you can say just about anything after it.

Comment by rodalpho

on 2015-08-04T15:55:58-05:00

Wow, down another 25%. WoW is hemorrhaging subscriptions.

People playing on tokens are absolutely counted. Why wouldn't they be? Each token is worth at minimum 33% more than a subscription, and at maximum more like 50% (you pay less when subscribing for 3 or 6 months at a time).

Comment by valbarr

on 2015-08-04T16:10:49-05:00

How much has the actual money they get a month gone down, because of all these lost subscriptions, thats the important thing, if for example they had used just half of that loss of money, to get more developers, and make more content faster, how many people would still be playing ? they keep saying they dont have time to do this or they dont have time to do that. but if they had actually got more people to make content, how many people would still be playing.